Bob Graham: Fix bay with RESTORE Act

Published: Saturday, February 2, 2013 at 08:16 PM.

PANAMA CITY — Former Gov. Bob Graham on Saturday urged the use of RESTORE Act funds to ensure the future of Apalachicola Bay.

Graham, also a former U.S. senator, spoke at a press conference at Florida State University Panama City, directing state citizens’ attention to the opportunity the Apalachicola Bay has to be restored through the settlement that could be as much as $20 billion.

“We need to be sure, that when it comes to Florida and its share of those funds, that the Apalachicola, which has been one of the major contributors to the quality of the Gulf of Mexico … that it gets proper attention so that it can be back to its historic levels.”

Graham said the RESTORE Act calls for allocating 80 percent of the funds received through the settlement to restoration of the Gulf of Mexico.

The press conference was called during the annual Books Alive conference of writers. Graham, who wrote the book “Intelligence Matters,” was one of the guest speakers.

Graham challenged state citizens to take steps to visit the bay, conserve water and call on state government leaders to confront water overuse by neighboring states.

“I urge you to contact Governor Scott and our state leaders and ask them to add their voices to the request of the Corps of Engineers for the establishment of policies that will assure the Apalachicola does not get left out of the allocation of the water that’s coming through this system,” Graham said, adding that “Florida needs to be a leader by example” and conserve water as well.

PANAMA CITY — Former Gov. Bob Graham on Saturday urged the use of RESTORE Act funds to ensure the future of Apalachicola Bay.

Graham, also a former U.S. senator, spoke at a press conference at Florida State University Panama City, directing state citizens’ attention to the opportunity the Apalachicola Bay has to be restored through the settlement that could be as much as $20 billion.

“We need to be sure, that when it comes to Florida and its share of those funds, that the Apalachicola, which has been one of the major contributors to the quality of the Gulf of Mexico … that it gets proper attention so that it can be back to its historic levels.”

Graham said the RESTORE Act calls for allocating 80 percent of the funds received through the settlement to restoration of the Gulf of Mexico.

The press conference was called during the annual Books Alive conference of writers. Graham, who wrote the book “Intelligence Matters,” was one of the guest speakers.

Graham challenged state citizens to take steps to visit the bay, conserve water and call on state government leaders to confront water overuse by neighboring states.

“I urge you to contact Governor Scott and our state leaders and ask them to add their voices to the request of the Corps of Engineers for the establishment of policies that will assure the Apalachicola does not get left out of the allocation of the water that’s coming through this system,” Graham said, adding that “Florida needs to be a leader by example” and conserve water as well.

“While the drought takes its toll, the additional thousand to three thousand cubic feet per second that is removed from the rivers in ground water for municipal, industrial and agricultural purposes are then evaporated through the reservoirs, increase the damage and decrease the resiliency of the system to recover as it would under less strenuous conditions,” Tonsmeire said.

The decline of the river’s flowing area has disrupted fish habitat, forest and seafood harvest, hitting the oyster industry especially hard.

Former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Allan Bense said the river itself, aside from industry and marine life, is beautiful and a part of Florida’s history.

“We can’t continue to allow water to go into agricultural uses in Georgia and parts of Alabama because by the time it comes to Florida, there’s nothing left,” Bense said.

“We’ve got stand up … we can’t just allow lawyers to fight the fight; we have to fight the fight as citizens of Northwest Florida,” he said.

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